Snoutie and His Friends

One day Snoutie and Mama went out to run some errands and Papa and Little Penguin stayed at home. Papa was working at his desk in his office. He had some important business to take care of, so he explained that Little Penguin should not come in and disturb him.

“What, I can’t bother you at all? I can’t even come in?” asked Little Penguin sadly. “Can I just peek in from time to time?”

“Fine,” answered Papa Snoutie. “Let’s agree on that.”

And they did.

“Now,” said Papa Snoutie, “you go off and play, and I’ll take care of my business. But if something especially important happens, or if you have a Special Need of some kind, then you can come in and tell me about it.”

Little Penguin agreed, nodded happily, and ran out into the other room. He played for a little while, but he got bored quickly: he knew all the toys too well, and he had no desire to play with them without his friend Snoutie. So he started looking around the living room in search of something new to keep him busy. That’s when he noticed his own reflection in the large mirror standing by the fireplace.

“How elegant I am,” he thought. “Black plumage on my wings and back, white down on my chest; it’s as if I’m dressed up in a tuxedo!” he decided, looking at himself from all sides. “All I need is a bow tie,” he said to himself, remembering how Papa Snoutie looked when he was dressed up for a special occasion.

So he decided that such an important problem as a missing part of a tuxedo was exactly the kind of Special Need that Papa Snoutie had mentioned. He bounced back into the office, certain that his entrance would fall under their agreement, but to his great surprise, Papa Snoutie did not share this opinion.

Deciding not to wait for any assistance with the bow tie, Little Penguin took matters into his own wings and soon found the piece he needed in Snoutie’s closet.

“Well, that makes all the difference in the world!” exclaimed a satisfied Little Penguin, looking himself over in the mirror. “But I think this outfit calls for gloves. I can’t be a gentleman without gloves!”

He couldn’t find any gloves in Snoutie’s closet, so he decided that now this was definitely a case of Special Need. He marched confidently into Papa Snoutie’s office, but he did not meet with the understanding he expected this time either. However, he didn’t feel especially disappointed because he soon found gloves in another one of Snoutie’s closets. Little Penguin was quite satisfied with himself, but he hadn’t spent much time enjoying his reflection in the mirror before he was struck by another thought.

“This is all wonderful, but what I really need is a top hat!” he decided. “Otherwise, how can I take it off when I greet my friends if I don’t even have one? What’s more, if I ever get bored for some reason, I can always set it on the floor and drum on it with my wings. I can also stand it importantly next to me when I’m in a skybox at the stadium, or leave it at the hatcheck when I go to the theater or the opera. And sometimes I can just turn it over and climb up on top of it!”

Then Little Penguin headed to the office with Another Special Need, certain that now his Especially Important Question would not go unanswered. But Little Penguin was wrong again. Papa Snoutie did not at all believe that a top hat counted as a Special Need, and he had no plans whatsoever to stop working, so he again sent Little Penguin off to play on his own.

Feeling angry, Little Penguin returned to the living room, fluffing out his feathers, his Especially Important Question unanswered. Forgetting the rules of good behavior and without even asking for permission, the naughty little fellow continued his search for a top hat in Papa Snoutie’s closet. He soon met with success; he removed the object of his search from the depths of the closet and dragged it close to the mirror in the living room.

“Now that’s what I call a gentleman!” he said with satisfaction, looking at himself admiringly in the mirror.

The only problem was that this true gentleman had to balance the hat on his head with both wings because it was quite a bit bigger than Little Penguin himself. What’s more, the old top hat was quite dusty because it hadn’t been worn in many years, so the mischievous sharp dresser sneezed several times. He finally gave a sneeze so great that it made him jump a little and even flap his wings. The top hat took advantage of this and slipped down over his head, covering his entire body.

Everything went dark and Little Penguin felt confused, but then he quickly understood what had happened. After several unsuccessful attempts to get out from under the top hat, he pecked at it in annoyance from inside. But then he was happy to find that his strong beak had poked two holes through the top hat and that light was coming in.

“This is even better!” exclaimed Little Penguin. “And it’s more comfortable because I don’t have to hold it on with my wings.” Satisfied Little Penguin ran all around the room and could see everything clearly.